Jan 8, 2015

Lew Stahl of Cody will retire after 36 years of service with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Most recently, he was the statewide fish passage coordinator in Cody.

“Lew's achievements are both numerous and remarkable,” said Mark Fowden, fish division chief, in a department news release. “His has been a diverse and productive career.”

Cody resident Lew Stahl, seen here at the Mumm Fishway on Bitter Creek in 2011, has
retired after 36 years with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Photo courtesy Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Stahl began his Game and Fish career in 1978 as a seasonal wildlife biologist in Gillette and then worked nine months at the Downar Bird Farm near Yoder. In 1980, he moved to the Yellowtail Wildlife Habitat Management Area near Lovell and began his permanent service as a habitat unit manager for Game and Fish habitat areas in the Cody and Sheridan regions.

He transferred to the Lander region in 1988, where he worked on habitat areas around Riverton, Dubois and Lander. Stahl then became the terrestrial habitat biologist while in the Lander region and worked extensively with government agencies and private landowners.

He transferred from the terrestrial section to be the Cody region’s aquatic habitat biologist in August 1996 and was promoted to be Wyoming’s first fish passage coordinator in August 2010. In this statewide position he was responsible for providing fish upstream passage past barriers and keeping fish in the streams by screening canal systems.

“Truly, it is remarkable for a department employee to experience such a diversity of jobs and duties and to serve three divisions during their career,” Fowden said. “Lew's dedication to enhancing and maintaining habitat on private-, public- and (Wyoming Game and Fish) Commission-controlled lands and waters is a testament to his passion for fish and wildlife habitat regardless of where or how he practiced his craft.”

Stahl is an Iowa native, although he spent three years of grade school in Moorcroft. He attended Iowa State University before moving to Wyoming and earning wildlife management degrees from both Northwest College in Powell and the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Stahl also served in the Iowa and Wyoming Army National Guard from 1971-79.

In his spare time he enjoys fishing, hunting, camping, horses and woodworking. He has been a member of Wyoming Biologists’ Association, the Wildlife Society, Wyoming Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Stahl and his wife, Mary Jane, look forward to a new chapter in their lives and plan to travel in retirement.